


you mean the world (i won't let the world hurt you)

by QueenOfTheQuill



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: Alive AU, Bobby is Not Trevor Wilson, Dissociation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Everyone Is Alive, Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Modern Era, Reggie Peters Has Bad Parents (Julie and The Phantoms), Reggie Peters Has a Sibling (Julie and The Phantoms), except Rose sorry Rose, i slipped and angst came out, it's about the, reggie is the best big brother ever, relationships are SO not the focus here, we live for band cuddles and 4 himbo pseudo dads
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-24 17:41:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30075918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenOfTheQuill/pseuds/QueenOfTheQuill
Summary: When his little sister is born, nine-year-old Reggie swears she’s the most perfect thing in the world.Or the story of how the found family around the band has one, much younger member.
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Flynn/Carrie Wilson, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 45
Kudos: 82





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Y’all, this is _purely_ self indulgent. I started writing and I can’t stop, I love big brother Reggie too much.
> 
> Alive!AU/Modern!AU and currently more snapshots than plot. I’ll let you know if something changes. I do not know anything about how births work and who is allowed where, please don’t come for me lol.

When his little sister is born, nine-year-old Reggie swears she’s the most perfect thing in the world.

He gets to ride in the ambulance to the hospital with his mom because his dad is at work, so he was the one who called and there’s no one else there for him to stay with. In the hallway outside the room where they took his mom, he kicks his heels against the plastic chair until a tired-looking nurse comes out and looks at him in surprise.

“Who’s here with you?” she asks, looking around like an adult might appear at any moment.

“My mom,” Reggie tells her, pointing to the room. “She’s in there having a baby,” he adds, in case he was unclear. Adults tend to look confused when he tells them stuff.

The nurse is no exception. “And is your dad here?

He shakes his head. “He’s at work.”

“Grandparents? Family friends?”

Reggie counts off on her fingers. “Nana and Papa live in Ohio. I’ve never met them. I don’t know about Mom’s parents. Alex’s family is in Sacramento. Bobby’s dad is getting ummmmmmm I think it’s back surgery. Um. Luke’s mom might come get me.”

The nurse lets out a breath. “Ok hon, do you know Luke’s phone number?”

Reggie brightens. “Oh, yeah! I memorized it last year. Mom kept losing the paper where it was written down.”

“That’s nice. Here, I can take you to the nurses’ station and you can call Luke’s mom to come get you, ok?”

“Ok.” Reggie grins. “What’s the nurses’ station?”

The nurse, whose name is Annie, answers all of Reggie’s questions about babies, gives him a pen with the hospital logo on it, and walks him back to his mom’s room once she knows Mrs. Patterson is coming to get him. Outside Mom’s door, she hesitates. “Your mom’s all done now, do you want to come meet your baby sister?”

Of course he does.

When Annie lets him into the room, his mom is just sitting, staring off into space like she does at home in front of the TV. In her arms, however, is a tiny little something wrapped in a blanket. It’s wiggling.

“Mrs. Peters, your son is here to meet his sister.” Mom doesn’t turn her head. Annie looks down at Reggie, her lips twisting. “It’s ok, she’s just tired.”

“That’s ok, I’m used to it,” Reggie tells her earnestly. He misses Annie’s next expression because he had moved close enough to see the baby.

She’s tiny and red and wrinkly, and her face is all scrunched up, and her black hair looks wet. Reggie loves her immediately.

“Hi,” he whispers. He feels like his face was going to split in half from his grin. She just waves her little fists at him and makes a tiny coughing sound. “I’m Reggie. I’m going to be your best big brother ever.”

~*~

Mrs. Patterson brings him home three days later, when his mom and the baby come back from the hospital. Reggie is vibrating more than _Luke_ and he has to run back to the Pattersons’ car for his backpack because he’d forgotten it.

Reggie wants to slam the door open, but what if his little sister was sleeping? So he opens and shuts it again carefully (he knew she couldn’t walk yet, but what if she could get loose, like a dog?), tiptoeing into the living room.

Mom is sitting in front of the TV, where she usually sits, staring blankly at it. Reggie can’t see the baby.

“Mom, where is she?” he asks, bouncing excitedly on his toes. She hums, so he knows she’s listening, but doesn’t take her eyes off the screen.

“Who?”

“The baby!”

That gets her attention and she switches her blank stare to him. “Why?”

Reggie shivers. Mom’s in one of her… he calls it her white paper moods. Like a big piece of white paper that no one had drawn on yet. It makes him feel all empty inside his chest, but he pushes forward to stand at the end of the couch. “I, uh. I just want to say hi.”

Mom stares at him for a long moment. He shifts on his feet, wondering if he should ask again. Maybe she hadn’t heard him?

Just as Reggie is about to open his mouth again, Mom slowly turns her head back to the TV.

“She’s in her nursery.”

Reggie frowns. Aren’t you supposed to watch a baby? He thinks they’re pretty fragile. You can’t play with them like a dog or a cat. Maybe he’ll get a snack and go sit in her room with her.

When he makes his way to the kitchen to find some crackers and peanut butter, he finds a whole heap of papers on the counter instead. Intrigued, he wonders if there’s a receipt for his sister, like you get when you buy shoes or McDonald’s. Poking through the papers, he mostly sees boring-looking stuff about whatever “postnatal care” is. He’s about to stop when he sees something labeled “birth certificate.” He knows what that is from the time his mom had yelled at his dad about losing Reggie’s and then he’d asked Mrs. Patterson what it was later. It will have his little sister’s name on it!

Except the line labeled “name” is blank. He sees the date of birth (June 16th) and the time (3:47 pm), but the name spot is blank.

Reggie pokes his head back into the living room, wondering if he should try bothering his mom again.

“Hey Mom?” Well there’s that decision made. “What’s her name?”

“Who?”

He sighs. “My sister, Mom. The name part on her birth certifitick thingy is blank.”

“I don’t care. The hospital just gave us that to return later.”

“Did Dad name her?”

“No.”

“So she… doesn’t have a name?”

Mom sighs. “You name her, then, if it bothers you.”

Reggie grins. “Really? I get to name her? Thanks Mom!”

Later, he would look back on this moment and hate it for what it meant. Now though, he rushes back into the kitchen to get his snack so he can head to his sister’s room and try to think of the best name for her.

“I’ll find the prettiest name there is,” he promises to her little wiggling hands. “Just wait.”

~*~

A few days later, he convinces Alex, Luke, and Bobby to come meet his sister before they go to play in the ocean.

“Why does she look so squished?”

“Luke!”

“What, she does!”

“Luke’s got a point,” said Bobby, wrinkling his nose as he looks down at Reggie’s little sister. “She does look pretty squished. I’m glad me and Carrie are the same age, so I don’t have to remember her looking like this. Sorry Reg.”

“Guys!” Alex’s voice goes even higher than usual. “She’s a baby! She’s cute!”

“Alex gets middle name rights for being the only one who’s nice to my sister,” Reggie declares.

Luke pouts immediately. “Hey! I didn’t say she looked bad, just squished!”

“I also don’t know how to make Luke a girl’s name.”

“You could have just made her middle name Luke!”

“Gross,” says Bobby, shoving Luke’s shoulder. “Also, it could have been Lucy.”

“Oh yeah.”

“Hey, no taking my middle name rights!”

“It’s so rad that your parents are letting you name her,” Luke says, ignoring Alex’s pout. “You should make her first name totally wild. Like Roxanne. Or Valerie. Or Thor.”

“Thor’s another boy name, Luke,” Bobby points out. He’s poking his finger at the baby’s face and she’s trying to catch it.

“You could do matching R names?” suggests Alex, looking around the room for inspiration. “Like Rachel. Or Ruby. Or, uh-”

“Roxanne!”

“You already said Roxanne, Luke,” Reggie points out. “I dunno, does she look like an R name baby?”

“She just looks like a baby, dude,” says Bobby, who has graduated to poking at her stomach before getting his hand slapped away by Alex.

“Dude, you’re gonna make her throw up or something.” Bobby’s hand is out of the crib faster than Luke could run for a radio.

“What about, like, old lady names?” asks Luke. “Your name is all fancy.”

Reggie grins. “You think my name is fancy?” he asks, touched.

“Yeah, dude, it’s super cool.”

“Ok, so what old lady names do you know?”

“I have a great aunt named Mabel?” offers Alex. Reggie’s nose wrinkles. “Yeah, I didn’t think so.”

Bobby shrugs. “My grandmas’ names are Eliora and Meredith. I have a neighbor named Esme?”

Reggie bites his lip. “Eliora is pretty. Do you know how to spell it?”

“No.”

Luke rolls his eyes. “Then what help was that, Bobbers?”

“You haven’t come up with one good name yet!”

“Roxanne was a really good name!”

As Bobby and Luke squabble in the background, Reggie joins Alex at the side of the crib. “Got any other great aunts?”

“Eve, Judith, and Sarah.”

Reggie leans down to peer closely at the baby. “I almost like Sarah, but it’s too…”

“Boring?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, she’s my most boring great aunt. Maybe an S name? Just list all the ones you know.”

“Ok. Sasha, Sarah, Sabrina, Steve-”

“Reg, that’s a boy’s name.”

“-Sadie, uh… Skye, Susanna, Sadie. Wait, I said Sadie already-”

“What about Sophie?” Luke’s head pops up between theirs suddenly.

“Luke, wasn’t that the name of your pet fish that died cause you forgot to feed it?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good name!”

Bobby, still laying on the floor from where Luke had been wrestling with him, says, “What about Sophia? So it’s, like, a little different.”

At that moment, the baby lets out a loud giggle, waving her little fists at the three faces above her.

“See, Sophia likes it!” Luke crows. “I got her first name, which is way better than her middle name, _Alex_.”

“Technically, Bobby got her first name.”

“I did most of the work!”

Reggie ignores his friends descending into another argument behind him, sticking his hand in to let Sophia grab onto his finger. They grin at each other. “Hi Sophia. I’m Reggie.”

On their way out to the beach, Reggie lets Bobby use his hospital pen to write “Sophia Alexandra Peters” in his best penmanship on the empty birth certificate.


	2. Chapter 2

“Soph, you gotta hang onto my backpack real tight, alright?”

“Yeah, you _said_ already. We did this yesterday, Reg!”

Reggie, a newly-minted high school junior, grins over his shoulder at his sister. At seven, she has legs _juuuuust_ long enough to stand on the bike pegs Bobby had given him for his birthday and ride with him to practice.

“Alright, here we go!”

Sophia whoops as Reggie takes off, slow enough that he knows he won’t jostle her off, fast enough that he can get back to the studio before Luke combusts. It’s not his fault that high school and elementary school get out at different times! And it was never a question of whether or not Soph would go home by herself.

After a lot of excited yelling about Sohpia’s day and one questionably wobbly turn, he pulls to a stop in front of the studio. Luke, Reggie, and Alex had met Julie by _literally_ falling out of thin air (or at least the bleachers over Julie’s head) right in front of her on the first day of sophomore year. And _somehow,_ Luke was still cool enough to convince her in the past few weeks to let them use the studio on her property that they’d all played in as kids before Bobby and Carrie’s dad hit it big and moved. Reggie still isn’t sure how Luke had even _found_ _out_ that’s where Julie lives. (He’s still in the fight to get her to join the band after she dropped a notebook full of song lyrics and Luke had caught a glimpse. It’s currently a stalemate.)

“Hey Jitterbug!” Speaking of Luke, he catches sight of Sophia as soon as the pair enters the garage. She shrieks with laughter as he scoops her up and blows a raspberry on her tummy.

“Luke, you’re all gross!”

“What was that? Did I hear ‘Luke, tickle me?’”

Sophia shrieks again and wiggles out of his hold, running behind the drum set. “Alex, hide me!”

“Sophia has vanished and none of you can see her,” Alex deadpans to the room.

“Does that mean I don’t have to give her the new coloring book Carrie got her?” Bobby stage whispers.

That does the trick. Sophia’s out from behind the drums with her arms wrapped around Bobby’s legs in a flash. “No, you can give it to me, you can give it to me!”

“Gotta let go of my legs first, Squirt.” Released, Bobby scoops an “animals of the jungle” coloring book from his backpack while Reggie climbs the ladder into the loft.

Taking it with both hands, Sophia looks seriously up at Bobby as he idly picks out a line on his guitar. “Are there tigers in here?”

“You betcha. Big ones, with sharp teeth.”

Sophia giggles. “Good. I’m gonna color one purple.”

“You do that.”

“Soph,” Reggie calls down. “Your castle awaits, Sir Sophia.” He’d long since learned the mistake of trying to call his little sister Princess Sophia. The bruise on his shin hadn’t gone away for a week. Sure, she’d been four, but he didn’t like to take chances.

When she makes it to the top of the ladder, with Alex giving her a boost, Reg pulls the noise cancelling headphones he’d saved to buy out of his bag. “You know the drill, these go on as long as you’re in here. Homework before coloring. If you need me, come get me between songs unless-”

“-it’s an emergency or I really gotta pee,” Sophia finishes. “Did you bring snacks?”

“Who do you think I am?” asks Reggie with mock offense. “Of course I brought snacks.” Out of his backpack comes a baggie of carrot sticks and one of crackers, along with a water bottle. “Alright, you good to go FiFi?”

“Yeah GiGi. Rock on.” They make shaka hands at each other and stick their tongues out before Reggie slides her headphones on and jumps down the ladder.

Slipping his base strap over his shoulder, they slide right back into rehearsal like he’d never left. Julie even comes out for a while and workshops lyrics with Luke, teasing them all by sitting at the piano bench and not playing.

Around 6:30, Flynn and Carrie drop by, coming to pick Julie up to go try out a new food truck. Julie turns to them with raised brows. “You guys wanna come?”

“They gonna have anything kid friendly there?” Reggie asks absentmindedly, already packing up his bag. 

“Why, you only eat dino nuggets, Reg?” asks Flynn teasingly.

The boys and Carrie share a Look. Well, the boys share a Look. Carrie looks at them all like they’re complete dumbasses.

Alex is the one to break the silence. “Julie, have we really managed to sneak a 7-year-old in and out of your garage on accident for the past three weeks?”

“You’ve _what?”_

“I’m gonna say that’s a yes,” Bobby mutters.

“Hold on, lemme just,” Reggie races for the loft ladder, climbing until his head pokes onto the next floor. Sophia looks up from her coloring and takes the headphones off. “Wanna go try some new food with some new friends, Soph?”

She scowls. “Is there gonna be mac and cheese?”

“I bet we can find something. Remember to thank Carrie for your new coloring book.”

“Ok. I gotta pee first.” Reggie helps her clean up her things, then down the ladder. On her way to the bathroom, she holds out a coloring page to Carrie.

“Thank you for my book, Carrie,” she recites dutifully before running for the bathroom in the back.

Reggie turns to Flynn and Julie, grinning. “So that’s my sister, Sophia. Pretty cool, huh?”

The two still just look gobsmacked. Julie pulls herself together first. “I knew you _had_ a sister, I didn’t know she was here!”

“Yeah, not that she’s not _super_ cute, like, oh my god,” says Flynn. “But _why_ do you bring a 7-year-old to daily band practice?”

The boys share another loaded look. Just then, there’s a knock on the inside of the bathroom door. “Reggie! I need help washing my hands!”

Grateful for the out, Reggie pulls away from the awkward silence to lift Sophia up high enough to reach the sink. When they come back out, he figures someone must’ve said _something_ , because Flynn and Julie still look confused but also like they aren’t about to ask questions.

“Sophia, these are my friends Flynn and Julie. They go to my school. We’re in Julie’s studio right now.”

Sophia regards them both solemnly, gives herself devil’s horns with her fingers, and says, “Rock til you die.”

Bobby, Carrie, Luke, and Reggie all burst out laughing. Alex jabs Luke in the stomach with his elbow. “Stop teaching her that that’s a good way to greet people, you’re gonna get her exorcised by those weird street preachers.”

“Who said it was me?” snickers Luke. “Could’ve been Bobbers.” Alex just looks at him flatly.

“It’s always you.”

Flynn looks like Christmas has come early. Julie looks like she doesn’t know whether to laugh or strangle Luke as the group ambles out onto the street. Sophia gets pride of place on Luke’s shoulders, which might be the only thing saving him from Julie’s wrath.

“I can’t believe you guys _accidentally_ hid a first grader from me, I mean what the shiiiiiiii- shoot.”

“She already knows every swear word these bozos know,” Carrie says casually from where her arm is around Flynn.

Sophia pipes up from Luke’s shoulders. “And I know not to use them unless it’s-”

“-really fucking important,” chorus her and the band. Bobby holds his hand up to her for a high five.

“What is my life?” Julie mutters under her breath.

“You love us, Molina,” Luke says, slinging an arm around her shoulders, then wincing as Sophia grabs his hair for balance. “I’m not a horse, Jitterbug.”

They razz on Luke for the next few blocks, making clip clop noises as Sophia kicks her heels into his chest and giggles. At least until Luke announces, “Special delivery!” and drops her on Alex, who holds her upside down by the ankles as she laughs. Somehow, she ends up on Reggie’s back, and he carries her until they get to the circle of trucks a few blocks down.

Reggie finds a truck selling mac and cheese bites for Sophia, frowning at the price. He doesn’t have much left in his wallet…

When the two find the group’s agreed-upon patch of grass, Sophia has a cone of fried goodness and Reggie’s hands are just full with Sophia.

“Nothing caught your eye?” asks Flynn, the only one back yet, around her burrito bowl.

“Nah, not all that hungry,” Reggie lies, setting Sophia down and dropping with a groan. “You’re getting too big to carry, FiFi.”

“I’m gonna stop growing then!” she announces, crunching dramatically on a mac and cheese bite.

“You don’t wanna try and get bigger than Reggie and carry _him_ around?” Flynn asks.

“Nuh uh, I’m gonna make GiGi carry me forever!”

“Preach it, sister,” says Flynn, holding up her hand for a fistbump. “You _make_ GiGi carry you.”

Sophia shakes her head. “Sister nickname _only_ , you don’t get to call him GiGi.”

“Soph, we talked about being polite.”

“Sister nickname only, _please_ ,” she says grudgingly.

“Close enough.”

Flynn, hiding her laugh behind her hand, is saved from having to reply by Carrie, Julie, and Alex flopping down next to her with street tacos. Alex shoots Reggie a suspicious look.

“Did you inhale your food or not buy anything?”

Reggie just shrugs, going for nonchalant. “Not hungry.”

Carrie rolls her eyes and throws a twenty at him. “Reg, our dad is _literally_ a millionaire, go buy yourself dinner.”

“Care, I don’t-”

“I mean it’s one street taco, Reggie, how much could it be? Fifty dollars?” Reggie recognizes the meme for the threat it is and flees before she gives him even _more_ money that he has no way to pay back.

When he makes it back to the group, Bobby and Luke have rejoined. Bobby has some kind of veggie wrap something or other and Luke has a hot dog piled high with toppings.

“I can’t believe you can still eat those,” Alex is saying with his nose wrinkled as Luke takes an enormous bite.

“‘Street dogs haven’t killed us yet,’” Reggie quotes himself. Luke just points at him.

Alex rolls his eyes. “Yeah, the last time you said that, street dogs nearly killed us. I still can’t look at them without feeling queasy. Bobbers went _full vegetarian_ and he didn’t even eat one!”

“I was already vegetarian you asshole.”

“Wait, you guys nearly died from _hot dogs_?”

“Oh man, Jules, we haven’t told you this story? Ok, so-” Luke launches into the tale for a disgusted Julie and Flynn, with Bobby chiming in for the things that happened when the other three were out of it from getting their stomachs pumped. Carrie deliberately scoots away from his very detailed descriptions to sit next to Alex and Sophia, who is telling an only slightly less disgusting story about a boy who tried to eat a frog on the playground.

Reggie just lays back, his stomach full of amazing street taco, and lets it wash over him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, you thought Reggie bought Sophia those headphones for band practice?
> 
> More detailed trigger warnings for parental fights, abuse, and dissociation in the after-notes.

It’s 2am and Sophia’s supposed to be asleep in her bed. That’s all Reggie can think about as their parents’ yelling echoes around the small house. Doors slam as one of them tries to move and the other one follows, still yelling. Glass shatters against a wall somewhere.

Reggie’s trying to block it out, cradling Sophia in his closet. He’d put up blankets on the wall, but it doesn’t do much to muffle the noise. Sophia has her noise cancelling headphones on, but she’s still shaking lightly against his chest. Reggie’s humming every song he can think of, partially to drown out the yelling, partially so his sister can feel the vibrations from his chest. He knows it calms her down a little.

The yelling stops right outside his door and Reggie’s breath hitches. Sophia burrows closer into his chest.

“-just a fucking whore anyway.”

“Oh, I’m a whore, you think I don’t know you’re sleeping around with-”

“Fuck you, if you’d just give out I wouldn’t need-”

“Oh yeah, cause things always turn out  _ real _ good when that happens. Just knock me up again, why don’t you?”

“It’s not my fault you can’t take your fucking birth control! Gave me two more mouths to feed while you sit around and do nothing!”

“Don’t pretend like you care about them either!”

Reggie’s breathing speeds up and he tries to block out the rest of the fight as it moves away.  _ At least Sophia’s got the headphones _ , he thinks shakily.  _ At least she doesn’t have to hear that. _

Forcing his breathing back under control, Reggie rubs soothing circles on Sophia’s back until he can feel her get heavier in sleep. 

_ At least she can’t hear _ , he repeats to himself as he curls up on the floor around Sophia and tries to follow her to sleep.

~*~

“Dude, you look like shit.”

“Thanks Bobbers,” Reggie mumbles. He can’t even deny it, he knows he looks awful. He’d gotten maybe two hours of restless sleep on the floor of his closet before he’d had to get up to get Sophia to her before-school program and to his own classes.

“Hey, do you and Soph need to sleep at ours tonight?” Bobby asked quietly as he steers Reggie to their first class. “You know we’ve got plenty of room and the door’s always open.”

“Your dad-”

“Is not gonna be home tonight, he’s off collaborating with somebody in New York.” Bobby eyes him, calculating. “Plus, Sophia could probably use a full night’s sleep.”

Reggie glares at him blearily. “That’s playing dirty.”

“Is it working?”

Sighing, Reggie nods. “Yeah. I’ll tell Luke that I’m gonna be late to practice so I can go pick up some of our stuff from the house.”

Bobby claps him on the back. “I’ll tell him. You look like you’re gonna forget we had this conversation in about five minutes.”

Reggie grins, then yawns. “Yeah, probably.”

The boys hand Reggie off for the rest of the day, making sure he gets to all the right classes through his brain fog. Flynn even has to push him a few classrooms over when he walks into her 4th period graphic design instead of his music and media production class.

He bikes home in a daze, most of his mind focused on what he needs to grab for him and Sophia to sleep over at Bobby’s tonight. If he weren’t so tired, he would have noticed the yelling from outside. As it is, he walks right into the middle of a storm when he opens the front door.

“- _ you _ get your ass out there then and-”

Holding his breath, Reggie tries to slide past them. His parents don’t usually fight in the middle of the day, but his dad must have the day off or something. Suddenly, a flailing arm hits him in the face and knocks him backwards. His head bounces off the drywall and Reggie sees stars for a moment, slumped against the wall.

“Now look what you did!”

A glass shatters next to his face and Reggie doesn’t even wait to see who threw it. He just sprints to Sophia’s room, grabbing handfuls of clothes from her dresser drawer without looking at them. Then he’s out the window and on his bike as fast as he can manage.

Reggie doesn’t remember making it to Julie’s studio. The next thing he’s aware of, Alex is grabbing his shoulders and Luke is yelling in the background and Reggie is just sinking to his knees on the floor.

“Soph… Someone needs to go get Sophia from school…”

“Luke can do it when it’s time,” Alex says firmly. “Reggie, you’re bleeding.”

“Huh?”

Alex touches his fingers to Reggie’s temple and pulls them away to show the other boy the red.

“Oh. That’s why my head hurts.” Alex doesn’t answer, just starts pulling tissues out of his fanny pack and trying to dab away the blood. Distantly, Reggie sees Bobby come back into the garage with a first aid kit and realizes he doesn’t know when the other boy left. Julie’s trailing behind him, stopping to put her hand over her mouth when she sees Reggie.

Alex takes the first aid kit with a murmured thanks, but when he puts one hand on the back of Reggie’s head to hold him steady, Reggie hisses in pain. “Reg?”

“Um. Hit it, against the wall. That was before the glass though,” he adds, helpfully. The order seems important. One of his parents hit him, he smacked his head into the wall, one of them threw a glass at him, he ran. Straightforward.

Alex’s mouth presses into a flat line. Bobby swears profusely, and Luke looks ready to run to his house right now and join in the fight. Oh. Maybe he’d said that last part out loud. “Julie, do you have a couple of ice packs?” Alex asks, his voice shaking.

“Yeah. Hold on, I’ll just-” She runs for the house.

Reggie frowns at Alex’s hands, which are shaking. “Oh no, Lex, you having a panic attack? Shit, I didn’t mean to do that, I can just go-”

Alex’s hands hold him in place on the couch. Oh, when did they move to the couch? “I’ll have a panic attack later, Reg. You’re more important right now.”

That didn’t seem right, but Alex’s hands are on the back of his neck and he’s saying, “This is gonna sting, sorry Reg,” and then his forehead  _ does _ sting, like a lot and Reggie is aware that he’s making a pitiful whining noise in the back of his throat, but he also feels a little more  _ there _ in his body.

Julie comes jogging back in with two ice packs wrapped in bandanas as Alex is rinsing out his cut for the third time. She stops in the doorway to talk to someone outside. Reggie recognizes the rumble of Luke and Bobby’s voices. They sound upset. Oh no.

Tears well up in Reggie’s eyes as Julie approaches with the ice packs. “Are Luke and Bobby mad at me for messing up practice?”

Her eyes widen. “Reg, no! No way. They’re mad at your parents for hurting you.”

“It was an accident,” he whispers. No one believes him, not even himself. Julie just hums and helps him hold the ice packs, one to the back of his head, one to his face. Alex slaps a couple of bandaids on the cut on his temple.

“It was pretty shallow, so that should be fine. Luke and Bobby?” Alex turns to Julie.

“I told them to walk it off. Luke said they were going to go pick up Sophia from school.”

“Now you know why she comes to band practice, huh Jules?” Reggie giggles, a little hysterical. “Cause otherwise, she’d have to go home.”

~*~

Luke, Bobby, and Sophia come back a while later with ice cream. Alex and Julie googled concussions and determined that he probably didn’t have one, but Luke still cancels band practice. Reggie’s protests that he’s fine are overruled. After seeing him with ice packs and bandaids, Sophia can’t be detached from his side anyway, so it’s probably for the best.

Close to 5, Bobby looks up from his phone and announces that Dirty Candy is done with their practice. Reggie expects to be the only one getting up to join him, but Luke, Alex, and Julie stand up too.

“We’re coming with you, you dweeb,” Alex says, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, band sleepover, man,” adds Luke, slinging an arm around his shoulders.

Julie runs inside to talk to her dad and pack a bag, but she’s back in a flash. “Flynn can meet us there, if you’re cool with that, Reg?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be? Flynn’s cool.”

“I like her braids,” pipes up Sophia from where she’s holding Reggie’s hand. “Do you think she’d braid my hair?”

Julie grins and leans over to bop Sophia on the nose, making her giggle. “I bet she would, chiquita.”

They stop by Luke’s and Alex’s places to pick up spare clothes for the next day. By the time they get to the Wilson’s, Carrie and Flynn are already waiting. They all pile on the couch and somebody puts Star Wars on the TV while Carrie takes everyone’s yelled pizza orders. Reggie is sitting with his legs in Luke’s lap and his back against Alex’s side. Sophia’s on the floor in front of Flynn, getting her hair braided and ignoring all of them until they decide to switch to Mario Kart. She immediately calls Bowser while Reggie rock-paper-scissors Julie for the Shy Guy.

Around 9, Sophia falls asleep on the end of the couch, despite the loud trash talk from the rest of them. Carrie grabs her controller and thrashes Luke, Bobby, and Flynn, even coming from behind.

An hour later, Carrie declares her intention to sleep in a real bed, and drags Flynn with her.

“They just wanna go make out,” Julie stage whispers.

“Hell yeah I do,” floats down the stairs in Flynn’s voice. The rest of them giggle.

Bobby loans Reggie a pair of sweatpants to sleep in, and an outfit for the next day. They’re close enough to the same size that it shouldn’t matter.

As the five of them bed down on the rest of the Wilson’s massive couch, Reggie whispers into the dark room. “Thanks, you guys. I love you.”

A chorus of “love you too” and “good night” and “Lexi, get your fucking feet out of my face” makes Reggie smile into the darkness. He nestles deeper into Luke’s side, flips some of Julie’s hair out of his face, and closes his eyes to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: this chapter depicts two loud fights between Reggie’s parents, including misogynistic slurs, breaking glass, Reggie’s mom verbally saying neither of them care about the kids, Reggie getting accidentally hit in the face, and blood. Reggie dissociates and loses time after the second fight. After that, his friends take care of him and Sophia, and the whole group goes to sleep at Bobby and Carrie’s house. Be careful, everyone.
> 
> If you suspect you have a concussion, please go visit a medical professional. Don’t just go hang out with your best friends, no matter how much emotional support you need.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y’all, I’m so sorry. Emotionally abusive encounter with Mrs. Peters, more detailed trigger warning in the bottom notes.

Reggie goes to school in Bobby’s clothes for a week because he and Sophia don’t go back to their house for that long. When Trevor had gotten home from New York, Bobby had just stared him dead in the eye and informed his dad that they had guests. Reggie wanted to throw himself out of the window, nearly hyperventilating even after Trevor had just shrugged and told them not to trash anything.

But it’s been a week and the cut on his forehead has scabbed over and the bruise on his face is yellow instead of dark purple. And he kind of really wants to wear underwear that’s his.

That doesn’t make it any easier to be standing on his doorstep, even with the guys behind him. The house is quiet, which should be reassuring, but isn’t.

“Just- Just don’t start shit, ok?” Reggie knows he’s pleading, but if Bobby and Luke start going at it with either of his parents, he thinks he’ll shatter into pieces.

“We know, man. You’re more important than starting a fight with those motherfu-”

“What Luke’s trying to say,” Alex cuts in, “is that we’re here for you, not them.” Reggie nods gratefully and sticks his key in the front door.

He can hear the TV, so he knows his mom is home. He doesn’t really want to go talk to her, but he’d feel even weirder saying nothing, so he takes a deep breath and moves to the doorway of the living room. “Mom?”

She’s staring vacantly at the TV, like she usually is when he finds her in the house alone. His mom makes the vague humming noise that means she hears them.

“Just… wanted to let you know me and Sophia are alright. We’re not dead.” Silence. “I’m here to pick up our stuff, so we can go stay with Bobby for a while.” More silence. “Alright, we’re just gonna-”

“Good riddance.”

All four of them freeze. Luke and Bobby instantly look like they have thunderclouds behind their eyes.

“What?”

She finally turns her blank eyes on them. “Good riddance.”

Then she turns back to the TV, like nothing at all has happened. Reggie just stands there with his mouth hanging open until Luke puts a hand on his shoulder and says with a tight voice, “C’mon man, let’s just get your stuff.” Reggie lets Luke pull him away, towards his bedroom. It’s only once they’re out of sight and Luke pulls him into a rough hug that Reggie realizes he’s crying. Alex and Bobby pile onto the outside of the hug as he clutches Luke.

“I knew- I mean, I  _ knew _ , you guys,” he manages to choke out. “I’ve heard her say it before—” somebody inhales sharply, “—that she doesn’t care about us, just not like…  _ to _ me.”

Alex takes a deep, shuddery breath. “Yeah, if I think about that for too long, I’m gonna have a breakdown. Let’s just get everything we can grab and go.”

“Ok,” Reggie whispers.

He and Sophia don’t have all that much. He’d already grabbed the majority of her clothes the night he left, just a few odds and ends left laying around. They grab the toys and books that are still laying around her room, shoving them into garbage bags Alex had scrounged up from his house.

“Papers,” Reggie suddenly croaks into the tense silence. He clears his throat. “Our-our papers, our birth certificates and stuff, we should grab them.”

“I can do it,” volunteers Bobby. “Just tell me where they are.”

“Kitchen, the bottom drawer on the left. I think there might be medical records in there too.” Bobby tosses him a salute and splits off when the boys head to Reggie’s room. There’s a little more to grab in here, but Reggie had never had that many clothes either. He stuffs what there is in a bag, grabbing his history textbook that he’d accidentally left at home the morning of the fight. Alex had been sharing his every day. He blinks back tears and shoves the book into his backpack.

Reggie doesn’t break until Bobby comes back with the papers from the kitchen. Sitting right on top of the too-thin medical files is Sophia’s birth certificate. Seeing Bobby’s nine-year-old handwriting on the page, the rest of which he now knows was filled out by the hospital and not his parents, shatters something in him.

The sobs are deep and ugly and they tear out of him like they have claws.

Dimly, Reggie registers Alex hugging him as Luke and Bobby shove his stuff into trash bags faster. He feels wetness trickle into his hair and he realizes Alex is crying too.

When his room is as bare as they can make it in about 5 minutes, Luke pops the screen out of his window and goes out first, so Bobby can hand the bags out before hopping out himself. Reggie is ridiculously grateful that they’re not leaving through the front door. Then Alex hands him out the window and he’s stumbling into Bobby’s arms.

“Sorry Bobert, know you’re allergic to emotions,” Reggie mumbles through the tears, trying to make a joke.

“Shut up, I can do this much,” Bobby tells him, far more serious than Reggie had been. So he just stands in the circle of Bobby’s arms while Luke and Alex silently load up Bobby’s Jeep with the trash bags that hold his life now.

“C’mon, Reg. Let’s get you home.”

~*~

Carrie takes one look at them when they stumble in through the door and grabs her keys. “I’ll go get Sophia from school. We’ll pick up Flynn and Julie, have a girls’ afternoon.” She’s out the door before Reggie can even say thank you.

“Damn Bobby, she’s even more allergic to emotions than you are,” says Luke in awe. Alex shoves his elbow into Luke’s side, but Reggie just let out a watery chuckle.

“At least she doesn’t have to deal with me, right guys?”

“What?!”

“No!”

_ “Reg!” _

The other boys’ startled responses overlap as they practically fight to hug him first. Luke ends up being the one who wins, looping his hand behind Reggie’s neck and pulling him in close. “Dude, we’re  _ happy _ to deal with you. You’re never too much or whatever. We’re not gonna leave you.”

“You deserve love and attention, Reg,” Alex adds from behind him. Reggie feels the taller boy lay his head on his back as his arms loop around Reggie’s waist. “We’re here for you.”

“Love you, man,” adds Bobby simply. Reggie reaches his hand out of the hug, blindly groping for his last bandmate. Bobby grabs his hand and holds on.

“Can we watch Star Wars and cuddle?” Reggie asks in a small voice from the middle of the hug.

“Yeah, Reg. Anything you need.”

Reggie cries a few more times, tears leaking out almost without him noticing. Bobby disappears for a minute only to come back and chuck a tissue box at him. Reggie catches it with a startled laugh and stops wiping his eyes on his flannel.

Luke bullies them into watching the movies in Machete order, but they take a break after Empire Strikes Back to move Reggie and Sophia’s trash bags from the car into the spare room next to Bobby’s. Reggie has another breakdown when they try to unpack the bags, so they head back downstairs and start up Attack of the Clones instead.

As Obi-Wan discovers the clone army on Kamino, they hear the front door open and Sophia’s excited voice yelling, “GiGiiiiiiii!”

Reggie quickly straightens himself up from where he’s sandwiched between Alex and Luke, wiping his eyes on his sleeves and shoving the pile of tissues under the coffee table. He pastes on a smile and catches Sophia when she flings herself at him.

“Hey FiFi. How was hanging with the girls?”

“Carrie took us to get  _ manicures _ ,” Sophia says, pronouncing the word carefully.

Alex gasps dramatically beside him. “And what color did you get?”

“Green!” she says, flinging out her hand to show off her lime green nails. “And the lady put a little daisy on my thumbs, look.”

As Alex and Luke coo over her nails, Reggie tilts his head back to look at Carrie, who’s toeing her shoes off in the entryway.

“No Flynn and Julie?” he asks, eying the plastic bags dangling from her left hand.

“No, they had to go run an errand,” she tells him, stopping to whisper something in Bobby’s ear that makes him grin. Reggie lets a little bit of tension bleed out of his shoulders. He’s not sure how many more people he can handle right now. “I brought dinner back for you losers because I figured you forgot to eat. Which is honestly impressive, for you.”

Luke’s head pops up from where he’d been leaning down to let Sophia chatter about her trip to the mall. “Is that Korean barbecue?”

“What do I look like, a heathen? Of course it’s Korean barbecue.”

Even though it’s after 8pm, Reggie’s only just noticed that he’s hungry. Pork kimchi stew is one of his favorite foods, He doesn’t even remember mentioning that to Carrie, but there it sits in a plastic takeout tub. “Thanks Carrie. It means a lot,” he says with a small smile.

“Gross,” she replies and he wrinkles his nose at her as his shaky grin gets bigger. “If any of you spill on the white couch, I’ll kill you.”

“Love you too, Care Bear.”

“I know where you sleep, Lucas.”

~*~

Reggie’s been sleeping in Bobby’s guest room for the past week, but tonight he just can’t close his eyes. Even though it’s Friday, Alex and Luke had to go home to spend time with their families. They’d only left after Reggie had pasted on a bright smile and told them he’d be fine.

Sophia’s snoring softly next to him, which is honestly a miracle given how much he’s tossing and turning. The clock reads 2:29 am when he finally gives up. Reggie sits, leaning against the headboard and staring at Sophia’s dark hair spread across the pillow. Bobby had mentioned finding her her own bed and setting something up, but for now, Reggie didn’t want to let her out of his sight. He also knows he’s not going to sleep like this.

Reggie debates with himself for a while, but eventually leans down to scoop Sophia up. She shifts sleepily, but doesn’t wake up as he shoulders his door open and walks down the hall.

“Bobby?” he whispers, nudging the other boy’s door open. “Yo, Bobster?”

“Mmmm, Reg?” He can see Bobby shifting, lifting an arm to rub his eyes. “W’t’s wrong?”

“I can’t- I mean, I know it’s stupid, but… can we sleep here tonight?”

He’s about to just turn around and walk back to his room in embarrassment when Bobby shuffles over and flips the covers down. “Sure, c’mere.”

Reggie lays Sophia down first, then climbs over her to lay in the middle next to Bobby. Bobby immediately slings an arm over his waist and buries his nose in the crook of Reggie’s neck. “Go t’sleep, Reg. S’late.”

“Yeah. Yeah, thanks Bobbers.”

“Mhm. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

Snuggled between his sister and his brother, Reggie finally falls asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: Mrs. Peters tells Reggie “good riddance” when he says he and Sophia are going to stay with Bobby.
> 
> Also, yes, Julie and Flynn went to go egg the Peters’ house. That’s their “errand.”


End file.
